"And in most things he's talking about but especially here, if you just look at the ticktock laid out by the New York Times this morning, I believe Maggie (Haberman) wrote the article last year, Donald Trump -- let me get the exact words, Donald Trump was calling Dreamers these, quote, 'incredible kids.' His staff members rushed to him and said stop speaking of them so sympathetically. It will hurt you to call these Dreamers incredible kids. Then the president had a Chinese dinner with Democrats. Talked once again about wanting to extend legal status to Dreamers. Staff members quickly ran behind him again like he's some bumpkin, some idiot who doesn't know what he wants to do, rushed behind him, killed the deal again. and then two times this past week Donald Trump told Democrats and Republicans, 'Let's figure out a way to do a deal. However you do it is fine with me' but said again, let people know he wanted to extend legal status to Dreamers.

Then of course there was the emergency meeting between President Trump and Chuck Schumer. and the president this time kept staff members out of the room -- because they treat him like he's just a fool, like he's just an idiot, like he's a stupid, old, blubbery old man who doesn't know what he's doing. Like he's the weakest leader on the planet. So Donald Trump said I'm just going to have Chuck Schumer come in and we're going to talk one on one and I'm not going to let these staff members treat me like I have predementia, even though they all run around saying I have predementia. I have a doctor who says I don't have predementia. Maybe I don't have predementia. I'll do this myself. So he brings in Chuck Schumer. They have the outlines of a deal.

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"And guess what happens? The staff kills it again, which leads the New York Times to report, 'Both sides have reasons to be confused. Each time Mr. Trump is edged towards compromise with Democrats, he has been reigned in by his own staff. The result has been a paralysis not only at the White House but on Capitol Hill. And Mika, this is what has led to the shutdown and also I've got to be confused. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just a dumb country lawyer, but it sure does seem to me when I hear Paul Ryan and Republicans talking about how Democrats are trying to hold health care for poor children hostage and then you have a Democrat go on the floor and say, 'Hey, I'm calling for unanimous consent, let's vote and let's pass CHIP today and let's give healthcare to the poorest children in America.'

"It's the Republicans who immediately object. And they won't let Democrats put that on the bill. Republicans are concerned about what this is going to do for paying our troops. 'I've got an idea. why don't we pass a law that I passed in 2013, Republicans, we can guarantee, we can guarantee that our men and women in uniform aren't hurt. Here is the bill that worked in 2013. Let's do it again.' Guess what happened? The Republicans objected because they didn't want a vote on the floor that would pass that would take care of our troops.

"And you can go down the line. The Republicans are stopping every one of these votes because they want to make a point.

But they're not exactly sure what point they want to make, Mika, because we have a president of the United States that is being led around by his staff who obviously think that he's not fit to be president of the United States because he makes deals and they break them. So that's where we are this morning. and guess what, there are a lot of federal employees that are staying home and not working today. And there are a lot of children whose parents don't know whether they're going to get the health care that they so desperately need. And there are a lot of troops in harm's way overseas that don't know whether they're going to get their pay or not because Republicans stopped Claire McCaskill's bill. They stopped the bill on CHIP from being voted on. because Republicans, Mika, Republicans can't figure out what Donald Trump wants. Every time Donald Trump figures it out, his staff undercuts him.

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